ESA TV News — info on feed of 26 March

The next ESA TV News feed will be transmitted on:

Monday 26 March 2001

09:30-09:45 GMT

Please note the transmission parameters below.

Space Science at the EGS Assembly in Nice
ESA TV News (1 item)

Geophysicists attending this week’s General Assembly of the European Geophysical Society in Nice
won’t just be discussing the latest scientific research about the Earth. They will also be turning
their attention to the other planets and bodies within our solar system and the missions Europe is
sending to explore them.

A full scientific programme for the Assembly, which is being held at the Nice Acropolis on 25-31
March, can be found at http://www.copernicus.org/EGS

Here are some of the conference highlights featuring ESA’s space science programme: Mars
Express, ESA’s mission to Mars in 2003, will be the subject of a whole day of talks. Each Principal
Investigator on the orbiter and lander will talk about the science his or her instrument will perform
and how it will contribute to an increase in knowledge about Mars. Europe’s other involvement in
the international Mars exploration programme will also be discussed, including plans for a Mars
micromission and a Marskite. Some of the latest results from NASA’s Mars Global Surveryor will be
presented, as will the latest controversial findings about fossilised life on Mars meteorites.

Most of the data collected during the recent Jupiter observation campaign by the Cassini and
Galileo spacecraft will be presented for the first time. During last autumn and early this year, the
two spacecraft have been simultaneously observing the environment inside and outside the
Jovian magnetosphere. Europe has considerable involvement in the experiments on board
Cassini and the new observations represent the next significant European participation in
exploring the giant planet. Another dedicated session will discuss future perspectives for Titan
exploration, especially from ESA’s Huygens probe.

The first results from Cluster, ESA’s mission to explore the Earth’s magnetosphere and its
interaction with the solar wind, will be presented. The two-day Cluster session will include more
than 80 papers and posters by scientists from all over Europe. The programme will include the
first detailed analysis of data from the 42 identical instruments flown on the Cluster quartet. The
session will also include results from the first ever multi-spacecraft crossings of the polar cusps
and the magnetopause, as well as analysis of coordinated observations involving both Cluster
and ground-based instruments.

Finally, also ESA’s Rosetta mission will be discussed during the EGS session on “Comets,
asteroids, meteorites and dust”. Rosetta will make history by becoming the first spacecraft to
orbit a comet and deploy a lander on its surface. Several papers will be presented on the lander
and the exciting science that will be undertaken during Rosetta’s 11-year space odyssey that will
start in January 2003.

More backgroud information can be found on: http://sci.esa.int

Satellite parameters

Eutelsat W1, 10 degrees East

Transponder B5, channel 2 (digital, horizontal)

F=11.14375 MHz, SR=5.632 MS/sec, FEC=3/4

MPEG-2 (4:2:0)

MCR: Tel +31 71 565 6322, Fax +31 71 565 6340

PID-codes (Hex): audio 24, video 21, text 0, PCR 21

For further information and a daily update of the transmission schedule, visit our website at http://television.esa.int. For all enquires, contact Claus Habfast, Tel +31 71 565 3838, Fax +31 71 565 6340, e-mail chabfast@hq.esa.fr.